Election Universe

UK, Australia, South Korea blaze e-government trail

Once a fringe area, e-government is fast gaining acceptance worldwide as governments finally turn to the internet to amplify their service delivery capabilities.

At the moment, UK, Australia, and South Korea are leading the rest of the world when it comes to e-government adoption. Nearly 96 percent of Australians have used the internet to access government services in the last two years. Some 26 percent, on the other hand, use e-government at least once a week.

A new UN E-Government Survey cites the UK for its continued development on e-government innovation and the fact that its Government Digital Service has been replicated by other countries around the world.

The survey likewise mentioned Australia and the Republic of Korea, who both have recently finished beefing up their telecommunications infrastructure, a requirement in successful e-Government implementations.

There is also growing evidence that e-government is being proven to actually fosters transparency, accountability, and participatory decision-making that lead to better public service, the study claims.

At the regional level, the Survey found that Europe continued to lead on e-government, followed by the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Europe was led by the United Kingdom. Oceania was led by Australia. Republic of Korea topped the list in Asia. The United States led countries in the Americas, and ranked twelfth overall, Mauritius was the top performer in Africa, and ranked 58th worldwide.

The uneven penetration of broadband across regions is proving to be the main reason behind the disparity in the rate of adoption of e-government, with Europe leading the world and Africa lagging behind.